Wildcats enter Lions' den in hopes of upset

The No. 26 Wildcats (3-7 overall, 1-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference) will face a pair of top teams in the seventh-ranked Nittany Lions and ninth-ranked West Virginia, along with unranked Temple Saturday.

"The bye week helped us improve on some of the nagging injuries," UA head coach Jim Gault said. "But it seems that when one person gets healthy, another goes down."

Arizona's string of tough injuries continued last week. Just after hearing that senior Cami Banholzer would return to the lineup this weekend, sophomore Gretchen Diaz sprained her ankle. Without Diaz, the team will need to supplement some scoring on the beam.

"Cami's return will help us but losing Gretchen is a little frustrating," Gault said.

Senior Rose McLaughlin will once again compete in the all around for Arizona. In her first-ever all around performance against Oregon State, McLaughlin finished in fourth place with a mark of 31.950. Also competing in all four events will be freshman Kara Fry, junior Kristin McDermott and senior Tenli Poggemeyer.

"Practice has been going well for us lately and our young team is beginning to improve each meet," Gault said. "It would be nice if we could have our best team out there, but you can't worry about things you can't control. Right now I am happy with the effort our team is giving."